new shoes

everywhere i look i see evidence that school is on its way, if not already here. the stores have readied for the big push. the scent of freshly sharpened pencils in the air. i see carts filled with new backpacks, folders and paper, pencil boxes and colorful plastic rulers. as a kid i dreaded the announcement of back to school. it began in july as retailers looked to capitalize on maximum sale time, and even though we all still had more than a month to go in our summer vacations, the deadline now loomed as each ad from the newspaper or commercial on tv reminded us the countdown had begun.
these days school seems to follow no set start date from town to town. some schools are even year round now. the horror. but for us, it was always that tuesday following labor day that began the fall term. and in fact, that jerry lewis telethon was the death nail of summer. my dad pretty much staked himself in front of the tv all weekend only sleeping when jerry slept. which meant not only were we facing the last days of our freedom, we didn't even get a last meal of cartoons before walking the green mile. so i'd hop on my bike and ride up and down my street alone and lonely until bored and tired, i would slink back into the house and sit down next to my dad and try to find something interesting about watching an aging comedian wearing a loose tuxedo tie kibitzing with other aging comedians.
by now my mom would have already taken my brother and me out to buy new shoes, which of course i couldn't wear until the first day of school. zips, keds, buster browns, kangaroos. we were kids, not gangsters. and all day long on that first day at school i'd shuffle from place to place always looking down at that new pair of shoes. so bright and shiny. how long before they got to looking worn in? and if i had lifted my gaze for a moment, perhaps i would have noticed most of the other kids doing the same. shuffling down the halls with our heads looking down. it was a long way back to summer vacation.